Noah Cassidy’s review published on Letterboxd:
That's all it is, Miles. A leap of faith.
Spurred on to rewatch this after completing a second story playthrough of Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I'd even say I like that more than this movie, something about its climax and exploration of being either a hero or a villain as a means to process grief, it's pretty incredible stuff. (If I ever start a blog where I can talk in-depth about things other than movies, something I've been tossing around here and there, I'm sure I'd write a piece about that game.) Anyway, Into the Spider-Verse. Yeah, this is now a 10, about time too, probably should have been that from the start. Raimi's first film about the web-crawler is always going to be my favorite movie with this character, I think. Call it nostalgia or genuine love, that's just how it's gonna be. That said, this is just undeniably a phenomenal film, one of the best superhero films ever made and one of the greatest visual feats in the history of animation. How the film with an hour and forty five minute runtime (if you don't count the credits) manages to explore both the "Spider-Verse" stuff so well while still keeping this without question a story about Miles Morales specifically I would want to call masterful. (No Way Home, even when it's running close to three hours, I have doubt is going to do it as well.) This is an emotional and often hilarious story about coming into your own, how Miles is a step in the legacy of an iconic person, but how he's so unique and special in his own right that he deserves to not just be a Spider-Man, he's the Spider-Man. It's a fitting struggle, as dramatic as it is humorous, but by the time you see him in the climax with the others, he feels more powerful than all of them combined, and it's more than earned. I think Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker is now more certainly my favorite iteration of that character, but man, he's really given a run for his money with Jake Johnson's Peter. Maybe one of my favorite vocal performances in an animated movie too, love what the film gets out of an adult Peter past his prime but still having a lot to learn. Nic Cage is a Nazi-fighting Spidey, John Mulaney is pork, there's punk Spidey and anime Spidey, this hits all of the bases visually, audibly, and narratively you could ever hope for superhero filmmaking. Showcases that if you're creative and passionate enough, "superhero fatigue" is not going to happen anytime soon, but, you know, this kind of "special" isn't something that reaches this level of notoriety very often. At least, to my memory, the sequel's out next year, so get hyped for that. This character is going to be on my mind a lot for the next month or so, and yes, as I'm thinking about it, I'm totally going to cry if Tobey shows up in No Way Home, I'm just laying that out right now. This character means a lot.
10/10
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